SEO is a term that is bandied about as if it were the holy grail
of Search Engine Marketing. But what is SEO really? It is optimizing your website?
Or, is it optimizing what you post to your web properties? Is it key word sensitive,
key phrase-centric or is it something else altogether? My answer to these questions
may surprise you. SEO is no longer just one thing. It's not just optimizing your
website for proper Meta tags and matching content. It has grown to mean so much
more. In this article, I discuss how Search Engine Optimization (a.d.a., SEO)
has evolved into Search Engine Marketing (a.k.a., SEM). I will discuss how what was
once a single-faceted injection has evolved into a multifaceted ongoing process.
In this article you will find information on how a company can improve its search
ranking, specific methods to follow that will insure a strong ranking position.
Best of all, you can accomplish all this without resorting to tricks, gimmicks or
deception that tries to bypass the search engine ranking systems.

The concept of making money online is nothing
new.It’s what drove most of us onto the
internet in the first place.Back in the
good old days before Google more or less monopolized search, there were real
opportunities to grab the top slots on a number of search engines (some in as
little as 24 hours), create an eCommerce site and get to it.However, the game has changed to the point
where there are now more than 300 million websites online with 130,000 new
sites being spawned daily.And they all
want to be on page one of Google.

While you can buy your way into the game with
Pay-Per-Click campaigns, many people quickly find out that in many cases
generating a click doesn’t mean generating a sale.As a result you can blow through your advertising
budget on any number of search engines, social networks and video portals
without turning a profit.That’s the bad
news.The good news is that there’s more
than one way to skin a search engine.

Other
Nontraditional Routes to Search Engine Page One

Websites aren’t the only thing displayed on page one
of the world’s most popular search engine.Videos, blog posts and social posts can also find their way onto the
first page for those who know how.Just
as with websites, mixed media can also be optimized, particularly if you employ
other Google properties to display your media.

Got Video?

YouTube is
owned by Google.When you do a search on
Google more often than not you will find a YouTube listing on Page One.The listing leads to a YouTube video that has
been optimized for Google.While the googlebots
can’t view your video, they can see the title, text, backlinks and keywords
that wrap the video.Savvy marketers
have been using this for years to jump from YouTube to Google.Better still is the fact that there will only
be one or two videos on any given page and this could actually be more
advantageous than having your website on the same page.

Blogger
is Google’s Free Blogging Portal

Just as with YouTube, properly optimized
blogs can and sometimes do get placed on page one of Google.Just as with video, the post and title need
to be optimized so the bots will deem your post worthy of inclusion on Page One.It also doesn’t hurt to get your
friends and family to read, comment on and re-post your blog posts.

Then there’s social networks.While Facebook is currently the world’s most
popular social network on the planet, Google+ is the only one owned and
operated by guess who?While some people
have referred to G+ as a virtual ghost town, a number of savvy online marketers
have used Google’s social network to leverage page one results.

Being
on Page One May Not be Enough to Ensure Financial Success

Sorry to say it but being on page one, even at the
top of the page is not enough to ensure success online.It’s only a starting point.Due to the fact that there are hundreds of
millions of sites, people have become kind of jaded online.That is to say that unlike a few years ago,
most people are not going to take the time to click around your 32 page website
to decide whether they should do business with you.In fact, statistically speaking, you only
have on average two minutes to dangle the bait and reel in the fish.And if your offer isn’t all that appealing,
then your results are not going to be anything to write home about.

Once you have satisfied the online side of the
equation by generating a highly visible link on a search term that contains a
great deal of traffic targeted to your product or service, then it’s time to
put on your marketing hat.More
experienced internet marketers won’t even start a campaign until they have
tested keywords, offers and results via some sort of pay-per-click
campaign.Spending a few hundred bucks
to make sure you are going to succeed before spending months to generate
organic results isn’t just a good idea.It’s the only way to go if you are looking to convert cash to
clicks.It is also the best way to
adjust your site’s look, feel and offer to maximize your return.

All too many people still subscribe to the Field of
Dreams form of online marketing.You
know, “Build it and they will come.”While they may come, that doesn’t mean that they will buy.If they don’t buy, don’t blame the medium,
whether search engine, social network or video portal.Blame your offer.Unless you have an exclusive way to solve a
problem or save people money, this means that there is competition.Competition is easy to find online, just google it.

Before
You Start

Before you start spending time and money
constructing a website, shooting video or blogging, you need to see what the
competition is offering for similar products or services.If your product or service costs more and
offers less, guess what? You had better start rethinking your concept for a
successful launch.This doesn’t mean that
you have to give away the farm to bag sales online.But you definitely have to offer at least a
perceived value that is of equal or greater value than the competition.As an example, a friend of mine ran a highly
successful site for a number of years that sold plants.The way he beat the competition was not by
offering the lowest prices.Instead he
offered the longest guarantee that stated that if his plant died up to two years
after the purchase he would replace it at no charge.He told me that less than one percent of his
customers ever took him up on this offer.As a result he was able to sell five figures worth of plants month in
and month out.

Other
Partners to Find Online Sales

A number of other successful online merchants have
found online gold by partnering up with eBay and/or Amazon.Especially if your business is retail in
nature, either of these two mammoth online sites can give you quick access to a
huge user base and simplified eCommerce solutions that are tailor made to jump
you from retail to etail in a hurry.That doesn’t mean that these portals are the best or indeed the only way
to get into the game, since they both charge fees for promoting and/or selling
your products.But they are another way
to buy into the game.

While there are no guarantees that your online store
will make money in the short run, it will most definitely burn less money than
a brick and mortar store, since you won’t have to hire more employees, invest
in expensive displays and signage, or worry about the landlord doubling the rent.The bottom line is that if you are serious
about breaking out of your local market and selling nationwide, you need to be
prepared to spend the time and money to test the water, build your brand and be
realistic about your results as you build your online store.If you can work out the bugs and find a way
to turn browsers into buyers, you could find yourself wondering why you didn’t
think of this concept years before.

If you like this article, you can find more by typing “robots” or "artificial intelligence" in the search box at the top left of this blog. If you found this article useful, share it with your friends, families and co-works. If you have a comment related to this article, leave it in the comment sections below. If you would like a free copy of our book, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," fill out the form below.

Back in the bad-old days, entrepreneurs searching for funding had three choices: 1. Friends and
Family 2. Banks 3. Angel and/or Venture Capitalists

For many this
meant that starting a business was nearly a mission impossible. Then in
2007, all that changed when Prosper.com launched the first peer-to-peer lending
service in the US. Since that time a number of other Crowdfunding sites
have popped up, including Kickstarter, which in 2012 raised more than $10
million for the Pebble Watch.

Before you decide
to quit your day job, understand that not all projects get funded. Some
pitches are flawed, while others are deemed unfundable due to the rules of
various Crowdsourcing portals. But for a staggering number of well
thought out and executed proposals, the world wide web can your oyster when it
comes to jumpstarting a business.However, as you will soon find out, Crowdfunding comes in a number of
different flavors.

Microloans a Big Deal to Start Ups

Prosper is
America's first microloan marketplace, with more than 1.6 million members and
over $400,000,000 in funded loans.While
few banks will offer loans to start ups, sites like prosper connect with the
public to form a funding pipeline that offers loans between $2,000 and $25,000
to businesses.Individuals can invest as
little as $25 per selected business.Both Prosper and the public profit from these microloans and Prosper
discloses credit scores and histories as well as servicing the loan on behalf
of the matched borrowers and lenders.You can even invest your IRA funds in Prosper.

While prosper
started the microloan revolution here in the US, they are far from alone.Other microloan sites have sprung up, with
names like captap.com, kiva.com, as well as federal (the SBA has a microloan
program) and municipal lenders, such as Los Angeles’ microloan.org run under
the auspices of the Valley Economic Development Center.Just like traditional “loans,” microloans
require that the borrower pay back the amount borrowed plus interest.

Once funded, project creators
are not required to pay back the amount raised. Other than a consideration that can range
anywhere from a thank you to actual merchandise, Kickstarter backers do not
expect to receive any other compensation.Sounds great from the creator’s viewpoint, doesn’t it?But there are a few caveats:

Everything on Kickstarter must be a project.
A project has a clear goal, like making an album, a book, or a work of art. A
project will eventually be completed, and something will be produced by it.

More importantly.
Funding is an all-or-nothing proposition on Kickstarter.What this means is that if you set your goal
at $50,000 and raise $49,999 you get nothing.On the other hand, if you set the goal at $10,000 and raise $100,000 you
get to keep it all.What Kickstarter
gets out of the proposition is 5% of the money raised by successful
creators.Payment is processed via
Amazon Payments in the US, from which an additional 3-5% in processing fees is
collected.

Hhow Effective
has Kickstarter Bbeen?

Since its launch
on April 26, 2009, over a half billion dollars has been raised from more than 3
million individuals which was used to fund more than 35,000 projects.Furthermore, Kickstarter states that 82% of
the projects that have reached 20% of their funding goal were successfully
funded. Of the projects that have reached 60% of their funding goal, 98% were
successfully funded.

In 2012, Crowdfunding
totaled $2.7 billion.This year it is
quite possible that those numbers will double.The reason that this phenomenon is so popular is due to the fact that it
turns funding on its head.Where in the
past entrepreneurs had to go hat in hand from one institution to the next,
begging those with deep pockets to fund their project.With Crowdfunding, the success of raising
money for your idea (project) is based on it’s perceived merits. Instead of
trying to raise $50,000 from a bank or angel investor, it is now possible to
raise the same amount of money from thousands of individual sources, a few
dollars at a time.It’s all about being
able to wow the crowd.

What's it Take to Get Funded?

Creating a
successful proposal isn’t like writing a business plan.Funders aren’t going to pore over your
projections.They want to see what you
are bringing to the world, how capable you are of running your company and can
you deliver on your promise.Therefore,
you will need to provide drawings, videos and even animation that show what
your product does and a compelling reason why it should be funded.The best way to get a bead on what works is
to peruse Kickstarter, Indiegogo and RocketHub, along with other Crowdfunding
sites. Review projects similar to what your trying to do that have been funded.

What is
considered fundable?Everything from
music cds to inventions, games, medical devices, books, comics and even publishing
houses have been funded.There are even
several space-based projects currently being shopped around, (including a
moon-base and a space telescope).So,
with the number of Crowdfunding sites growing by leaps and bounds, this is now
literally an industry where the sky is the limit.

In this article, I discussed the evolution of Crowdfunding. I have listed, summarized many of the features and benefits of several Crowdfunding sources and I have explained how KickStarter.com and other sites have turned the world of raising investment capital on its head. If you enjoyed this article, pass it on to your friends. If you have a comment, share it in the comment section, and please do not hesitate to post it to your social nets.

If you like this article, you can find more by typing “crowdfunding" in the search box at the top left of this blog. If you found this article useful, share it with your friends, families and co-works. If you have a comment related to this article, leave it in the comment sections below. If you would like a free copy of our book, "Internet Marketing Tips for the 21st Century," fill out the form below.

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By Hector Cisneros I have been actively networking in a number of organizations since the early 1980’s. My experience, tells me that most...

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